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Welcome to a new monthly feature here on TechRaptor, this feature will involve highlighting a gaming related YouTube channel that is up and coming or interesting. The intention of this feature is to help you all discover great new YouTube channels which I find interesting, entertaining or out-and-out crazy. We will also include a Q&A with the YouTuber to find out why they started doing videos on YouTube and also get some behind the scenes knowledge and tips

Our first feature is with the YouTube channel Many A True Nerd and its creator Jon. Many A True Nerd first came to my attention when I accidentally discovered the Fallout 3 kill everything run, yes he actually played Fallout 3 with the requirement that he kills all characters that can be killed, whether friend or foe.

– How did you first get into doing YouTube videos?

Almost by accident. I was just a hobbyist who wanted to try out a new thing and YouTube sounded fun. And I do still mostly think of it that way. Sometimes it’s very surreal to get sent fan mail, and get hundreds of comments in a day, and stuff like that. Imagine if you just did gardening because you enjoyed gardening and then one day tens of thousands of people want to get updates about how your gardening’s going.

– How did you first come up with the idea to do a Challenge series like your Kill Everything run?

Thinking back, I’ve always had a tendency to play through my favourite games over and over with different rule sets to keep them challenging. I remember playing the original Pokémon Blue repeatedly, each time saying that every team member had to be the same type.

Somehow, I came back to that. I’d played Fallout and Mass Effect and Hitman Blood Money for hundreds of hours, but when I started imposing rules, whether pacifist, or no-guns, or permadeath, I found they became completely different games. It’s a really wonderful thing to take a game you love and find a way to make it new again.

– Do any other Youtubers inspire/give you ideas or do you prefer to not look what other YouTubers are putting out?

There’s an old adage for writers that says you can’t write well unless you constantly read, and I think the same thing is true for YouTubers. I’ve always been very open about my inspirations, and I know that if I hadn’t seen some of Nerdcubed’s work in late 2012, there’s every chance I wouldn’t have started. But I feel don’t bad about that, because he’s openly stated that he was inspired by Hannah Hart’s editing style, and she was probably inspired by somebody too. TomSka recently made a video where he suggested creativity boils down to taking all the things you liked and blending them together into something new; I think there’s a lot of truth in that.

– How much German did you learn from your Sacred 2 run?

Given at the end of that series, I’m told I was still mispronouncing “böse”, not very much. The strange thing about that video was that, by absolute coincidence, it was made and released just before we got a big piece of coverage in the Bild, one of Germany’s biggest newspapers, so suddenly we picked up 800 German subscribers, who fortunately did not take offence at the butchering of their language.

– Any special plans for when you hit certain subscriber and or view amounts?

I’ll seize any excuse for a special celebration video, and I’ve got some magnificently terrible looking games set aside.

– What has been your favourite series so far?

The easy answer is Fallout 3: Kill Everything, as that series was our breakout moment, and does definitely contain some of the best videos I think I’ve ever made. But there are other smaller series I love too. Completing Hitman: Blood Money without having any kills against my name was awesome. And the new Thief is close to my heart, because there’s something strangely compelling about a game you keep thinking can’t get worse, and then it just keeps finding new ways to disappoint you or break.

– For any of our readers looking to start their own YouTube channel, what advice would you give them?

First, don’t do it unless you’re actually having fun doing it for its own sake. People are savvy enough to figure out when what they’re seeing isn’t authentic, so just trying to jump on what’s popular probably won’t do you much long-term good.

Secondly, don’t expect to become YouTube famous overnight. It’s taken us a year and half to get to where we are now, and by YouTube standards we’re still deemed small. If you ‘make it’ by whatever standards you set yourselves, it will probably be slow.

Thirdly, YouTube is not an easy way to make money or avoid getting a traditional job. Seriously, if you want an easy life, spend a few weeks doing free online tutorials for Excel and get an entry-level data analyst role. You’ll probably make more there then you’ll be making for YouTube years after you start. YouTube is hard work, and you’ll likely need to keep working a normal job at least part-time for quite a while.

Now I realise I’m sounding really negative, so I’ll add that if you’re prepared for the work, YouTube is wonderful – you get to play games, and chat with other gamers, and be creative, and work for yourself. But be prepared for the work it take too.

– With November approaching and Many a True November soon to start, just how hectic will it be to put a video out everyday for a whole month?

I’ll certainly say that it will be a challenge, as I’m trying to replicate the upload schedule of full-time professional YouTubers, when I do a full-time job at the same time. However, in previous Novembers I’ve always done the Nanowrimo challenge, trying to write a 50,000 word novel at the same time as doing a full-time job, so challenging Novembers are almost a tradition.

– Why do you think Hatoful Boyfriend was received so well, do we just enjoy weird ass games?

I’ve actually put a fair bit of thought into this, and I suspect that Hatoful Boyfriend’s success wasn’t just due to the weirdness, but the fact that it was in the visual novel genre. Audiobooks have been getting really popular over the last few years, and I honestly think there’s an element that people enjoy being read to.That’s actually how I view Chuggaconroy, who’s another favourite YouTuber of mine – I just find him really relaxing to listen to.

As you can see Jon and his channel Many A True Nerd are certainly worth checking out if you love interesting videos such as his challenges, add in classic British humour (we are a damn funny people) and you have a killer combo, so go check out his channel now and catch up!

Keep an eye out next month for the second YouTube channel spotlight.

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A dedicated PC gamer, I write investigative articles about all things gaming, the juicier and harder to find the details are, the more likely I will seek them. I hope to expand the knowledge of the average gamer to understand the industry and its practices more.
I currently play WoW, various RPG and strategy games, you can catch me on Steam under CozzyB